Whatever Happened To ... Sibley's?

The structure that was built in 1904 to house Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Co., a department store, is getting a new life as a mixed-use urban center as envisioned by Boston-based WinnDevelopment.
Jamie Germano

Editor's note: This story first ran in 2014 and has been updated to reflect recent changes at the former department store.

Few places in the Rochester area tug at the nostalgic heartstrings like Sibley's.

The prestigious department store was a landmark in downtown Rochester from the time it opened just after the Civil War until it closed in 1990. The enormous building at 228 E. Main St. is now called Sibley Square, and is a mixed-use site, with retail, work space and 104 luxury, market-rate apartments, 21 units for middle-income households and 72 senior apartments for people 55 and up.

Sibley's had everything you could want from the bargain basement to the sixth-floor Tower Restaurant. In between were entire floors devoted to women's clothing, children's wear, and home furnishings, as well as men's clothes, jewelry, china, rugs, sporting goods and much, much more. Sibley's had a grocery and a butcher shop, an art gallery and a portrait studio, a bridal bureau and a Toyland adorned at Christmastime with the popular Magic Corridor.

The cafeteria at Sibley’s is seen in this undated photo.
(Photo:
Rochester Public Library, Division of Local History
)

Sibley's was Rochester's version of Macy's in New York City or Marshall Field's in Chicago. As one longtime employee said in a 1990 Democrat and Chronicle story, "It was like walking into elegance."

There was more to Sibley's than its trademark quality merchandise and outstanding service. Sibley's hosted an annual scholastic art exhibition for nearly a half-century and events like Christmas pageants and the yearly "Gift of Love" gala, which benefited the Kidney Foundation. The store introduced Rochester to elevators in 1936 and aluminum "Charga-Plates" — precursors to plastic credit cards — years later. The place was innovative.

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The main floor of Sibley’s downtown store featured gourmet foods and everyday staples.(Photo: File photo)

"Before Wegmans was Wegmans, Sibley's was Wegmans," Mark Hare wrote in a 2006 Democrat and Chronicle column comparing the Rochester institutions.

And of course, there was the four-sided clock hung from the ceiling of the first floor, a gathering spot for generations that gave rise to the saying, "Meet me under the clock."

The business started in 1868 as Sibley, Lindsay & Curr at 73 Main St. Groundbreaking for the Granite Building was in 1891; when Sibley's moved in two years later, it was the largest department store between Chicago and New York City.

Fire destroyed the building in 1904, and Sibley's new building — the one still standing on Main Street — opened the following year. The bakery opened in 1910, and the grocery debuted in 1926, the same decade that "The Magic Corridor" started delighting kids and the young-at-heart during the Christmas holiday season.

The first branch store was in 1955 at Eastway Plaza in Penfield. Eventually, Sibley's had 15 stores, including in Buffalo and Rochester. The downtown Rochester flagship store remained the chain's grand dame.

Its Tower Restaurant, originally known as the Tea Room, had "marble columns, intricate ornamental molding, plaster wreaths and medallions" and an elevated bandstand with circular buffet, and enormous chandeliers of authentic Waterford crystal, wrote Karen Deyle in the book Rochester Eats: 75 Years of Classic Faves & Craves.

Sibley's had wonderful window displays and elaborate Christmas decorations, miles of pneumatic tubes to send along transactions, sculpted relief murals above the first-floor elevators and a stylish ladies lounge. Sibley's even produced a children's publication, The Juvenile Magazine, which promoted its products alongside games and stories.

"The Sibley's of old wasn't merely a commercial establishment; it was almost a social institution," one longtime shopper wrote in a 1989 "Speaking Out" piece in the Democrat and Chronicle.

That began to change in the 1980s. Sibley's vacated its entire fifth floor in 1980 and rented it to the Rochester Products Division of General Motors. The bakery closed the same year, and the grocery followed in 1981.

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Shoppers flock to Sibley’s to take advantage of 50 percent markdowns during the downtown store’s going out of business sale in 1990.
(Photo:
File photo
)

The May Department Stores chain acquired Sibley's in 1986, and two years later, the shopping area of the downtown store was reduced to three floors. Customers began complaining about the merchandise and service for which Sibley's had become known. In early 1990, Sibley's closed for good. The May Co. consolidated the Sibley's chain with its Kaufmann's department stores.

That wasn't the case for the flagship downtown store, though. Monroe Community College has occupied much of the Sibley's building for years but is now eyeing a move to an Eastman Kodak property on State Street. WinnDevelopment, which owns the building, is in the midst of transforming it into a mixed-use "urban center" that will include residential apartments.

Memories of Sibley's remain strong here. Joseph Eddy, vice president of WinnDevelopment, said he has heard from lots of people planning to attend the reunion.

"The enthusiasm for the Sibley reunion has been amazing and really shows how beloved this building is by the community," he said via email. "We're excited to host so many former employees and give them the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, share stories and see firsthand the progress being made with our redevelopment."